Thursday, June 14, 2012

Manila tack on China row wins Asean nod

Leaders of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have agreed that the
regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea should integrate
provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(Unclos), a treaty that the Philippines cites in its claim to disputed
Scarborough Shoal and other islands.

Unclos
virtually scraps China’s historical claim over majority of the islands
in the South China Sea using its “nine dashed line” argument that covers
90 percent of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea on
Chinese maps.

The Asean working
group on the Regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea has
concluded discussions on the key elements of the draft Code of Conduct
in the South China Sea for the Asean side.

Nong
Sakal, deputy director general of the General Department of Asean,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia,
chaired the 7th Meeting of the Asean Senior Officials Meeting (SOM)
working group on the regional Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China
Sea.

The
inputs of the working group would be submitted for the consideration of
the Asean SOM then forwarded to the foreign ministers meeting in middle
of July and for consideration of the Asean and Chinese leaders meeting
in November this year.

“The
meeting agreed to submit the draft Asean proposed key elements of the
regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea to the Asean SOM for
consideration,” said an Asean statement after the meeting. It included
recommendations of the Asean Foreign Ministers in January that the Code
of Conduct in the South China Sea must be based on the spirit of the
Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.”

The
Asean officials drafting the code said, “the UN Charter and universally
recognized international laws are aimed at promoting confidence
building and cooperation between Asean and China for the sake of peace, stability and security in the South China Sea.”

The
code of conduct aims to demilitarize the disputed islands in the South
China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal, that are being claimed by
the Philippines and China. Other claimants to the disputed islands in
the South China Sea include Asean members such as Malaysia, Brunei and
Vietnam.

The
Philippines is seeking to engage international and regional platforms
such as the United Nations and Asean to address the increasing tensions
with China over the incidents in the Scarborough Shoal since April and
previous Chinese military presence in disputed islands in the South
China Sea based on Unclos.

But China insists on pushing for bilateral negotiations with other claimant countries to settle the disputes.

The
Philippines had earlier opposed the inclusion of China in the drafting
of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, saying the code should be
a product of negotiations solely of the 10-member Asean that will have
to be signed as a final document by China.